Age of Booty Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

Voodoo and tarot permeate the age of Caribbean piracy and the various merchant ships in the game hold six different kinds of spook cards. The green skulled cubes floating in the water are not resources but curses. Think of them as tide-turning abilities.

Since the only way to get these cards is by attacking merchant vessels, be sure that you have some life in your vessel to survive the battle. Merchant vessels have their speed at level 0, their cannon at level 0, and their armor at level -1 (it is less than your pirate ship).

This doesn't mean though, that they cannot kill you. Being careless around merchant vessels mean they score some damage on you that gives an enemy pirate the advantage. On maps where merchant ships gather in narrow fjords or straits, they can seriously impede your attack and defence.

Bomb Curse

The bomb curse is the most effective and up-front method to kill enemies and towns. The damage it does will instantly destroy any merchant vessel, and against pirate vessels with an armor level of 0, will put them at one hit-point away from being destroyed.

While a bomb can only be placed in an empty ocean hex, a ship may (accidentally) move into that hex and suck it. In addition to the damage in the bomb hex, all six adjacent hexes around the bomb are subject to damage (much like a cruise missile hit).

The range doesn't beat its deployment versatility, which is considerable. You can place the bomb anywhere on the map (it isn't a weapon with deployment range, just limitations). In the easier challenges, you will have nothing but bomb curses and an enemy A.I. that's too dumb to spam them on your fleet.

You will find bombs to be quite handy in damaging enemies in a close engagement. Just remember if you're in range, the bomb will kill your ship as well. Mines (torpedoes) are not discriminatory when it comes to attacking.

Whirlpool

The whirlpool spook card is a random warp attack. When you place it on an ocean hex (a ship can occupy that hex), a whirlpool will form slowly under the ship.

The victim (of whom it may be you) has about 2 seconds to move out from the afflicted hex to escape the maelstrom's grasp. Failure means the victim will be warped to a random spot on the map (in ocean).

While this card doesn't eliminate an enemy, the ship that's transported may be part of a flotilla or just being a nuisance. You can warp away defenders, bunched up attackers, or even use the pool to deter pursuit through a narrow strait.

Don't under-estimate the whirlpool curse (like using it immediately), since you can hold onto it (even if your ship sinks, your curse stays with your captain) so you can come back and wreak havoc on the opposing team.

Ghost Ship

This curse is a Flying Dutchmann thing -- your ship turns invisible until it is hit by cannon-fire. This means you can sail through enemy held waters and not be noticed. However, the invisibility is not invincibility or "tingly" undetectability. Your ship can be sunk or fired upon if it is next to an enemy unit or town.

The visual spoofing is against human players only. If you get close to enemy ships, towns and fortresses (spawn points), a stray hit from the enemy will instantly de-cloak your vessel.

Although you think you can use this power only for sneak attacking, it is probably more effective for resource harvester players who can invisibly go around the map picking up stray crates and giving them to their allies.

Pilfer Resource (3 Types)

There are three different types of pilfer cards (one for each resource) and they are determined randomly when you pick-up the power up. Since you can only pilfer from the opposing team(s) (non-ranked matches have more than one team), you won't be getting any resources at the start of a match (because those generally get used up anyway by ships upgrading themselves).

Once a match gets going though, your pilfer cards will work well in delaying the enemy's advancement simply by robbing them of resources needed for upgrades.

Each pilfer card can steal 0, 1, or 2 units of the resource, and the amount you can steal is listed on the card. Hit the "use-card" button as soon as the resource hits 2 (ideal) or 1 (less than ideal), so you can prevent the enemy from upgrading (and you can immediately use those resources unless you lose them through dying or theft).

Pilfering rum is good when the ships are weak in the beginning or middle of a match. Gold and wood should always be stolen -- gold to prevent enemies from upgrading their towns and wood, because it's used for both ship and town upgrades.